Cloud Connect Initiative

Leveraging the community's investment in regional and national infrastructure to enhance "direct connection" to commercial cloud providers like Microsoft, Amazon and Google is an expanding priority for Internet2. We have two activities underway under the banner of our new "Cloud Connect" initiative that we would like to make you aware of and seek your participation in.

Internet2 is implementing new, dedicated interconnections to Microsoft, Amazon and Google that will allow Internet2 network connectors to access these providers and establish direct, private interconnections. The first connection point for Microsoft is already in place; Amazon and Google will follow in early 2018. These interconnections are available at no additional cost to Internet2 connectors, meaning that regional network connectors can begin to use them to support campus connections at the start of the new-year. (These “Phase 0” connections initially require some manual configuration and coordination with end users.)

We are beginning an active Community Cloud Study to collect use cases and requirements for a more strategic and long-term effort to introduce "cloud orchestration" support to the network. This call for collaboration will focus on collecting researcher, administrative and other use case stories that will help define the requirements for a more automated and full-featured set of capabilities that Internet2 could provide to the network connectors to more fully utilize the community’s infrastructure. These stories are essential to identifying the requirements and priorities that the community and its stakeholder groups have for features and capabilities that we would plan to deliver beginning next year.